


Good Neighbors

by Sintari (OriginalSintari)



Series: Something There is that Doesn't Love a Wall [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Canon Divergence, M/M, Mentions of Neji and OMC, Mentions of Violence, Slow Burn, neji deserved better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:15:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27226420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OriginalSintari/pseuds/Sintari
Summary: Gay shinobi aren't unheard of. After all, in a job where thirty is a ripe old age, nobody really has time to care who you sleep with. What are they going to do? Blackball you from the golf club?Gay Hyuuga are slightly more rare, but not unknown.  It's not something Neji ever plans to advertise, but then again, since when did he advertise anything?
Relationships: Hyuuga Neji/Uzumaki Naruto
Series: Something There is that Doesn't Love a Wall [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1987765
Comments: 11
Kudos: 90





	Good Neighbors

**Author's Note:**

  * For [myrafur](https://archiveofourown.org/users/myrafur/gifts).



> It only took me *checks notes* 14 years to finish this sequel to [Good Fences](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14071950).

_There is no hunting like the hunting of a man,_  
_and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it,_  
_never care for anything else thereafter._  
_\- Ernest Hemingway_

So Naruto is now in possession of a certain shampoo. There's nothing ordinary about this stuff, not even the bottle, which is all black except for gold lettering in a language Naruto can't even begin to understand. 

It was hard to come by, too, this special shampoo. He had to venture into a "boutique" to buy it, and one look at the price tag had him choking a little and wondering why on earth someone would pay that amount of money for something that could just as easily be replaced by a bar of soap. Then he’d unscrewed the cap, smelled the stuff, and remembered. There in the store it didn't smell exactly as good as it had in Hyuuga Neji's shower, but it would do. 

The sight of an unshaven jounin opening merchandise in the middle of the aisle had earned a scornful look from the saleslady behind the counter. Apparently unaffected by his shinobi mystique, she’d tapped ring-laden fingers on the counter until he came up to pay. He looked around shiftily before placing the bottle squarely on the counter in front of her. He thought about asking her to package it in a plain brown wrapper. 

Before this all started, Naruto hadn't ever given much thought to his sense of smell. Sure his mouth began to water when he walked by Ichiraku, or he knew winter would soon be on it's way when he smelled that cold bite in the air, but until recently, as far as senses went, smell hadn't even been in the top three.

Then came the incident with Neji's damn shampoo. At first, Naruto had thought it was a one-off thing, that the cloying smell in the shower had been some kind of an aphrodisiac like that one time in the Stone Country which totally wasn't his fault. But a week later he was reporting to Tsunade's office and caught the faintest whiff of it -- the smell of that shampoo mingled with something equally as sweet. All it took was a lingering trace on the air and his pants grew tight. It was crazy. Here he was, just back from preventing a war, and his heart was speeding up at the thought of standing in the same spot Neji had been standing in just minutes before him. Hell, if Naruto hadn't squeezed through the closing elevator doors to chat up one of the new secretaries, they might even have passed one another on the stairs.

He squirmed through his report. It was probably a testament to his general lack of briefing skills that neither Tsunade nor Shizune seemed to notice his distraction.

()()()()()

Gay shinobi aren't unheard of. After all, in a job where thirty is a ripe old age, nobody really has time to care who you sleep with. What are they going to do? Blackball you from the golf club?

Gay Hyuuga are slightly more rare, but not unknown. It's not something Neji ever plans to advertise, but then again, since when did he advertise anything? He was twenty before Hinata confessed that she couldn't distinguish his smile from his grimace and would he please show some teeth or something so she could have some clue about what he thought about the measures proposed during their Council meetings? And, next to Neji himself, Hinata possessed the most powerful insight ability in the entire Fire Country.

Neji did have sex. Of course he did. But his encounters were mainly of the random-stranger-in-a-dingy-hotel-far-from-home variety. Neji had once read that the reason you can't tickle yourself is because, no matter how hard you try, you always know that the touch is coming. To be well and truly tickled, it takes another person. Not that Hyuga Neji would allow anyone to tickle him. Ever. But sometimes it was... nice to touch someone, and for someone to touch him.

As he slid out from under the sink, he thought, in a vague sort of way, about whether it was worth it to make the run up to the gambling village and find some company for the evening. He wiped his hands on a dishtowel. Once again, he's repaired the leaky pipe himself. He'd rather the landlord stay out of his apartment. Otherwise, he'd have to disarm all his traps.

Returning his tools to their proper places, he decided against going out. There was a guy up there -- just a kid, really -- who was growing far too attached to him.

The last time they'd rented a room, the boy had propped up on one elbow while Neji dressed.

"Hiroshi isn't your real name, is it?"

When Neji hadn't answered, he'd sat up and wrapped his arms around Neji's waist from behind. "I know you're a Hyuga from Konoha." Neji remembers stiffening. "But I won't tell anyone," he'd quickly added. "Because... Because I think I'm falling in love with you."

Neji hadn't risked going back since. He'd always meant to return, disguised in his ANBU gear, just to make sure that the kid had found someone else to think he loved. The time had never been right, though.

Yes, he'd definitely stay in. The boy had been an enthusiastic lover. The tops of his forearms had been tanned, while the insides of his wrists were pale. He'd shivered when Neji kissed him there, after noting the contrast.

Neji's hand dipped below his own waistband. Sometimes another human touch was necessary. Tonight, memory would do.

Or fantasy. Because if he were honest, and a man is never more honest than when he's alone with his cock in his hand, he'd admit that he can't even remember what the boy's face looked like. It's Naruto he thinks of now. It has been for weeks, since Naruto borrowed his shower. He'd seen Naruto today from the Hokage's window, looking tired and disheveled, but still not letting the pack on his back weigh him down. Neji took the back stairs when he saw Naruto walk in the front door. There's no place for feelings like that in a shinobi's life, and there never will be.

Half-hearted stroking was progressing onto something more intense when a knock sounded on Neji's door. He was instantly alert, Byakugan activated, but what he saw had him deactivating it just as quickly. It was Naruto, and the first thing out of his mouth was a lie.

"Um hi. I know this is an imposition, but I was hoping I could borrow your shower again." Naruto leaned against the door frame, wearing an easy smile. He was a good bluffer, but nobody bluffs a Hyuga. An "imposition"? Not a Naruto word. A rehearsed word.

Neji had never liked being lied to. He shut the door on Naruto, muffling a surprised "Hey!" Momentarily, he opened it again. Naruto's fist was in the process of leaving his side as if he'd been about to knock again.

"Traps," Neji explained.

"Oh."

"You remember where it is." It wasn't a question.

Nodding, Naruto stopped at the cupboard this time, picking a cream colored towel. He grinned at Neji. "Can't forget this."

Neji smiled minutely back.

"I don't have anything for you," Neji said suddenly. A pause. "Any ramen, I mean."

Naruto stopped at the bathroom door. "I didn't come here for ramen."

The way he says it makes Neji's stomach lurch just a little.

He was still standing there, probably staring like a fool, when the bathroom door opened again.

"Um... Neji. Did you know you don't have any water?"

Naruto wasn't wearing a shirt. Or pants. And, quite possibly, from the sliver of skin Neji could make out when he allowed his eyes to travel downward, no underwear either.

"Shit. I forgot to turn it back on. I was fixing a pipe."

Naruto looked entirely too amused at that. "You know, I think that's the first time I've ever heard you curse."

"Cursing is for the ignorant." He could have been parroting Hiashi. "I should hope my vocabulary would allow me to find more appropriate words. My apologies."

Naruto's brows furrowed. "You're forgiven. If you turn on the water." The door closed behind him. From inside, Neji heard, "And here I thought you'd finally had that stick removed."

()()()()()

"I said it before and I'll say it again, me and you should go grab some beers or something." Naruto was out of the shower now. Neji wondered momentarily if he looked that ridiculous with a towel wrapped around his head, and concluded that he probably did. He'd been sitting on the couch, charging a book with the unenviable task of making him forget that Naruto was naked in his apartment. Now, Naruto perched on the couch arm, causing the cheap piece of furniture to creak dangerously.

Neji didn't look up from his book, though he couldn't have told anybody what it was about at that point. "I don't drink."

Naruto nodded knowingly. "Bad experience?"

"No experience."

"What?" Naruto leaned toward him, the couch creaking. "Never? Why the hell- Why not?"

"I'd rather not pollute my body."

Naruto laughed. "You unpollute in the alley behind the bar quick enough. You'd see."

"No thanks."

"Oh come on. Just come out drinking with me. I'd love to be the first one to get you trashed."

"I think not."

"You might like it. How do you know if you've never tried?"

"I know cutting my own heart out would be painful and I've never tried that."

Naruto sat back, a thoughtful look on his face. "That’s the comparison your mind immediately jumps to? Dark, man."

Neji stood, placing the book neatly on the couch. "I don't have any ramen tonight, so..." He shrugged a little because pointing at the door would have been far too rude.

"Then what on earth are you going to eat?" Naruto bounded up from the couch. "Let's at least go get some food. My treat. No drinks."

Neji felt his resolve wavering even as he reminded himself that there was no good direction in which for this to go. Uzumaki Naruto, the notorious womanizer of their generation, and Hyuga Neji, the reclusive gay ANBU captain who fantasized about him -- what a pair they'd make out on the town. Naruto stretched, his shirt riding up to expose just the barest hint of blond trailing below his belly button.

"You drink all you want," Neji finally said.

()()()()()

Neji was surprised that they didn't stop off at Ichiraku Ramen. Naruto must have noticed because he commented, "Already ate there twice today."

They proceeded to Konoha's tiny entertainment district, where Naruto led him to one of the newer restaurants. "I thought we'd go somewhere a little nicer. This is a good one. Always pretty quiet."

Across the street, a door flew open and two bouncers dragged a kid in a leaf hitai-ate out and deposited him roughly in the street.

Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "That's where I usually go."

"We can go there," Neji said. They were watching the young nin pick himself up and lurch over to the gutter.

"Nah," Naruto said. "I don't feel like all that tonight."

Even at the "quiet" restaurant, the bartender knew Naruto.

She stopped in the middle of filling a glass to saunter over to their side of the bar. "Hey sugar, haven't seen you here in awhile."

Naruto was scratching the back of his head again. A terrible nervous habit. "Hey, Izumi."

There was no hostess in sight.

Not put off by Naruto's unusual abruptness, she noticed Neji next. "Who's your friend?"

Naruto seemed to regain a bit of his equilibrium. "Izumi, this is Neji. We work together."

Izumi smiled at that. "Yeah, I can tell. So, what you drinking, Neji?"

Naruto stepped between Neji and Izumi. "Actually we're getting a table tonight, if your sister's around to find us one."

With raised eyebrows, Izumi eyed them both speculatively, before dismissing them with, "She'll be right back. You can just wait over there."

Back in the waiting area, Naruto ran his hands through his hair. "Geez. What crawled up her ass- uh... rear?"

Neji thought it pertinent not to answer. He could see Izumi sneaking looks in their direction.

"Well, whatever," Naruto answered himself. "That girl is bat-shit crazy anyway, and everybody knows it. When her last boyfriend broke up with her, she killed his cat. I'm not joking. She's not one you want to get tangled up with, I'm telling you."

"I wasn't planning on it," Neji said.

The hostess arrived then. After she inexplicably led them to one of the dim corner tables usually reserved for couples, she lit a candle and placed it between them. As soon as her back was turned, Neji blew it out and moved it aside.

"Okay, so the whole family is a little strange," Naruto amended. "But they do great noodles."

()()()()()

Naruto had kind of liked the candle. The dim light softened Neji's severe features, making him look almost serene. But then he'd blown the flame out and they were just two shinobi eating noodles again.

He hadn't actually meant to ask Neji out on a date, but then again, what had he meant barging in over at Neji's apartment at eight o'clock lying about needing to borrow the shower? He'd just wanted to see him, that was all. Generally, when Naruto wanted to see someone, he just came out and said it. But he had the feeling Neji wouldn't take that well. Naruto had endeared himself to his share of prickly people in his time -- Sasuke, Sakura, Tsunade -- but when it came to sheer aloofness, Neji topped them all.

During their travels, Jiraiya had spent a great deal of time teaching Naruto manners. Naruto resisted at first. What did a shinobi need to know about the proper way to introduce a dude to a chick? But then Jiraiya turned to him with a wink and said one of those things that had -- Naruto now realizes -- made him a Legendary Sannin and not just some perverted has-been.

"Politeness is the only way you can hide who you really are and watch people praise you for it."

Across from him, Naruto watched Neji place his napkin in his lap.

()()()()()

Two hours, three courses and eight drinks (five beers and three waters) later, Naruto thought he might have cracked the mask of courtesy just a bit.

“Oh gods,” he was saying. “How has everybody heard that story?”

Neji just smiled, but this time it showed not only in the slight curvature of his lips, but in his eyes. A real smile.

“She wasn’t sixty, she was thirty-five. Okay, thirty-nine. And a half. And that wasn’t my first time. It was my second time. Well… fourth time, if you count individuals… She was the second person I was with, let’s put it that way. Geez. Now tell that to all your gossipy friends!”

Neji was still amused. “I’ll call all of my gossipy friends right after this.”

“Why couldn’t that goddamn—I mean, that darn Ino have been hanging around for my first time? Now _that_ girl, she was just fifteen.”

Neji arched an eyebrow.

Naruto grinned back at him. “I was fourteen.”

“Well.” Neji took a sip of his water, and looked down at the table long enough to signal to Naruto that he was retreating behind that polite mask again.

“So how old were you your first time?” Naruto ventured.

Neji studied the water glass in his hand. “I was seventeen.” He paused. “And so was he.”

“He? Oh.” Naruto had no idea what to make of the tingle in his fingers and toes just then. He shifted in his seat. It was just like Neji to give him the answer to a question he hadn’t quite known he was asking.

“Is it anybody I know?” he asked, and then could have slapped himself when Neji visibly tensed.

“No.”

“Um… Sorry. I’ve always been too nosy. I shouldn’t have asked.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for.” But there was. With one stupid, prying question, Naruto had destroyed the comfortable atmosphere they’d created. Suddenly he noticed for the first time that the restaurant – nearly empty when they arrived – had filled up around them. Most of the other diners were couples. Male and female couples. All but a few gazed at one another over lit candles. 

Their waiter, who they had earlier agreed could have scored a perfect grade in Stealth & Concealment at the Academy, chose that moment to make a rare appearance at the table.

"Separate checks," Neji told him quickly, before Naruto could say anything at all.

"I said I'd treat," Naruto protested after the waiter ghosted off again.

Neji’s light words were just as forced as his pleasant expression. “It’s okay. I know how much money you make, remember?”

It was an old, tired joke that ANBU must love their work because they certainly don’t do it for the money. They ragged each other about it in the squad room, but the truth was that once you’d performed that first “special” mission, it was nearly impossible to do anything else. Including getting lost in the moment while holding a lover close, or sleeping through the night.

“Well, I know how much your shampoo costs,” Naruto shot back.

Neji blinked. “You do? You can only buy that stuff at one shop.”

“And you’re saying?”

“I just didn’t know you shopped there, that’s all.”

"There's lots you don't know about me," Naruto smirked. So what if it was something his twelve year old self might have said. Neji was talking to him again. That was all that mattered. 

Neji only looked thoughtful. "I'm sure that's true."

After they paid their separate checks, Naruto grew bold. “So, I'm going to walk you back to your apartment, now." He half expected another one of those disdainful looks, but, to his surprise, Neji’s reply was a noncommittal, “All right.”

Outside the restaurant, the streets were filling as the usual suspects, mostly people they knew, of course, prowling around for the various diversions you could find in a shinobi village on a Saturday night. Naruto had to pivot on his heel to keep up when Neji unexpectedly ducked into the alley beside the restaurant. Soon, they were walking along the deserted Nakano River Road toward Neji's building. Even though he'd had his whole life to get used to this, Naruto still winced at the implication. By choosing to walk home this way, no one would see someone classy like Neji with someone like him.

()()()()()

Contrary to nearly everything he'd said and done in the restaurant, Neji was not ready for their night to end. He'd impulsively chosen the Nakano River Road because it was long and twisting and ultimately more private than making their way through the Saturday night mob where people would stop Naruto every few seconds to gauge his plans, or invite him continue the night's revelries in a somewhat more burlesque fashion. Neji didn't suffer from that problem. In truth, he maintained very few friendships, gossipy or otherwise.

But it appeared he'd made the wrong choice again, because Naruto had grown quiet. The river road was more like a footpath, unlit and rarely used by carts or people, and so for a while they trudged through the mud with only nighttime river noises to break the silence.

Neji studied Naruto surreptitiously. He'd decided to walk between Neji and the river, and every few paces he would turn his head to look out over the dark water. It would probably take a Hyuga to observe that his shoulders slumped a fraction.

It's simple to kill a man. Slit his throat, snap his spine, brush a few chakra points with your fingertips until his heart stops beating. Afterward, there is only silence. But talking to a man of serious things, Neji knows, is another matter altogether. 

He cleared his throat before he spoke, causing Naruto to glance his way for the first time since they'd begun the walk home. "I'm not very good company," he said lamely. "My apologies."

Naruto's eyes finally met his then. "Neither am I, apparently." The words were oddly bitter, immediately putting Neji on the defensive.

"I don't know. That Izumi didn't seem to think so."

"Me and Izumi was a one time thing. It's you she was all over. _What are you drinking, Neji? It's on the house, Neji. My shift's over at midnight, Neji_ ," he falsettoed.

Neji stopped in the middle of the path, irritated. "You know very well she never said all that."

"She would have if I hadn't stopped her."

"So what? You're jealous? I thought she was 'bat-shit crazy'?"

"She is!"

"Then I fail to see the problem here. I thought I told you she's not my type."

That seemed to dampen Naruto's enthusiasm for the argument. It was in a considerably smaller voice that he asked, "So what is your type?"

"You," Neji wanted to answer, and was appalled at how close he came to actually letting the word escape. He glanced at Naruto, who was standing still, expectant, half in darkness speckled with leaf shadows. There beneath a maple tree, his face was as close to unreadable as Neji had ever seen it outside the confines of an ANBU mask.

"I don't date much," he finally said.

That seemed to placate Naruto a bit. His shoulders squared and his face relaxed back into a semblance of the easy expression he always wore.

"Well that's no way to live," Naruto said, his tone considerably lighter. With that, they resumed walking.

Neji realized it was his turn to speak. This is what normal people did. Carried on conversations. Give and take.

"How about you?" he asked. "Seeing anybody?"

"No," Naruto said simply. He was staring hard at the river now, concentrating as if a kappa had just appeared out of the dark water. Neji remembers his mother, before her death, warning him about playing in the river. "But the lucky thing about kappas, my precious boy, is that they are polite. If you greet them formally, they will bow to you, and that will spill the magic water on their heads, taking their power." After she died, Neji had spent hours staring at the river, but as it turned out, his was still the only head that bowed.

Why hadn't he seen it before? How supremely alike he and Naruto really were?

He began to speak, but Naruto spoke first.

"I think about you," Naruto said to the river.

A cloud covered the moon and, combined with the rolling fog from the river, they might as well have been the only two people in the world.

"What do you... think?" Neji wasn't even sure the question had been audible until Naruto answered.

"I think about being with you."

"I..." Neji hesitated. "I can't."

Then Neji did the only thing he could do. He ran.

()()()()()

At night in the bed, in the shower, on the couch with a book carelessly tossed onto the coffee table, and one time, shamefully, in a bathroom stall in the Hokage Tower, it was always the same thing for Neji, it never stopped.

Naruto's husky voice: _"I think about you."_

()()()()()

When Hyuga Neji appeared in the little gambling town and found a corner table in the half-empty bar, his former partner, the boy of the tanned forearms, turned his nose up at him disdainfully and accepted another drink from his new companion. Or new love, maybe?

Sometime later a lanky man, a little old for Neji's tastes but one who spoke in all the discreet code words of their society, slid into his booth and slithered a hand onto his knee under the table. 

"Should we...?" The man, whose name Neji hadn't bothered to learn, asked after a few vapid minutes of small talk.

"Let's go," Neji said.

()()()()()

The man was snoring in the morning when Neji woke to find a coded message from Hyuga Hiashi slipped neatly beneath the door and looking for all the world like the inn’s bill unless one knew better. Neji didn't have to dress – he never undressed in those encounters – and soon enough he bowed before the head of Hyuga and his two daughters.

“The Hidden Village of Diamond is an ally of ours,” Hiashi began without preamble. The circumstances, and his tone of voice, indicated he was speaking of Hyuga, not Konoha. “Against my counsel, their leader decided to harbor a rogue nin from Rock and now they are, of course, in trouble. According to my last intelligence, Rock nin in an undetermined number had crossed the Lightning Country’s border. You are to lead the group that will assure me that Diamond does not come to harm.”

“And that includes ridding Diamond of the rogue Rock nin?”

“Of course.”

Head still bowed, Neji noted out of his considerable peripheral vision that his cousin Hinata had looked away during the death sentence while her younger sister crossed her arms petulantly.

“And I will…” Hanabi started.

“Have no part in warfare at the age of fifteen,” Hiashi finished for her.

Everyone in the room knew that warfare wasn't the right word for what this was. Neji bowed low and exited. He and his squad were on his way within the hour.

()()()()()

It is not unprecedented for one shinobi village to attack another, but it is rare enough that, when mentioned in history books, the incidents are given names such as the Great Grass Massacre or the Shinobi War of '04. 

They are greeted by black smoke on the horizon and that is how Neji knows that he and his squad are too late. When they spread out to search the village for signs of life, he breaks the group into threes but, as for himself, he goes alone.

On this mission, he is a Hyuga, not a faceless ANBU in an eagle mask. And he doesn’t want the others, with their exposed manji and their iris-less eyes, looking at him. He doesn’t want them studying him when he sees the dead genin of Diamond, and the ones even younger. He doesn’t want them searching his face and telling stories later, around some campfire, about what they did or did not see there.

They are all dead. Everyone who made a home in this village. As the old saying goes, all Hidden Villages eventually hide one last time. That is their work here now. Hiashi will be disappointed that they were too late to save their ally, but he will not punish the messenger.

On the way home they run into a group of Rock nin traveling toward the remains of Diamond, likely intent on doing the same thing Neji’s group had already accomplished – demolishing the buildings, razing the houses, burning the documents and the fields. They are all shinobi, after all, and it wouldn’t do for the secrets of even one village to be laid bare. The battle, when it is joined, is a perfunctory one. There is nothing personal even in the screams as one of the younger Hyuga succumbs to a jutsu that hardens his skin. Soon enough Neji feels the calm that indicates he has fully blocked the last tenketsu of his last opponent, and thinks again that killing should never be this easy.

What if Naruto could see him now?

He pushes the thought away.

()()()()()

Hyuga Hanabi, the heir to all Hyuga, wanted a bodyguard about as much as Neji wanted to be standing just outside the shade of the Ichiraku Ramen stand's awning chaperoning her and Konahamaru on their second "date." But the younger Hyuga, as opportunistic as ever, made the most of his presence, transforming him from a guard to a servant by issuing imperious commands like "retrieve that napkin" and "walk the perimeter every five minutes."

If only enemy nin were even now closing in on Ichiraku Ramen, Neji thought uncharitably. Hanabi had sat in such a way that his best position to observe her was directly next to a trash can. And there were flies. 

What an inopportune moment for Naruto to appear. 

"I know I spend a lot of time here, but you could have just come by my apartment," Naruto grinned at him.

Neji indicated Hanabi with his chin.

Naruto winced. "Oy. This again. After their first date I caught him scaling the Hokage Mountain. She told him he had to paint a mustache on the Godaime to 'prove his love.'" 

They both shook their heads. It was the first time Neji had seen Naruto since that night. 

_"I think about you..."_

Watching Hanabi swiftly dodge as Konahamaru tried to cover her hand with his, Naruto pondered "What does anybody their age know about love?" 

"What does anybody know at our age?" Neji countered in a quiet voice. And then he allowed himself to take his full attention off his charge and their surroundings long enough for the two of them to smile a little at one another. Their eyes held and Neji felt the skin all over his body tighten.

Naruto's mouth had been open to say something, and there was a softness in his expression that Neji had rarely seen, but then, as if the brat had heard them, Hanabi abruptly stood up. "This date is now over. Thank you, Konohamaru for a lovely afternoon." She then offered her hand, and he, flustered, shook it. 

She swept out of the stand like an empress departing the throne room. "Come, Neji."

A pause. "Good afternoon," Neji said to Naruto. 

He watched Naruto's hand, which had been poised, he thought, to reach out and touch him, change trajectory into a wave. Their eyes met and held as he thought about how it is hard to make these human connections even from three feet away.

"Will I see you around tonight?" Naruto called after him. 

Neji had to go. The heir to Hyuga waited for no man. He thought about the children of Diamond, genin and younger, moldering in the unmarked grave of their village.

He couldn't open his mouth to answer.

()()()()()

_"Will I see you around tonight?"_

Neji had showered after the incident with the flies and the trash can, and then told himself he shouldn't go out until his hair was completely dry. When no trace of moisture was left, he'd slowly prepared his dinner - no need to pay the prices at the shops - and watched the water as it boiled for his rice. Gradually evening fell, then night, then the stars bloomed outside his window like eyes watching him from the heavens. He lived on a quiet street but periodically glanced out at the passersby below. Couples dressed for dates walked by, and groups of friends of all ages clowned, ready for a good time. 

"Will I see you around tonight?" 

A little before eleven, he thoroughly scrubbed his bowl, then one chopstick after the other.

Neji stood in the middle of the living room, looking at the doors. In his room, a book about military history waited on the nightstand. Out there, what waited might prove to be nothing. Or everything.

That was, if he could even find Naruto. Surely it was too late now. Naruto would be in his cups somewhere, probably with someone who was... what had he said? "Not too bad looking. Not too much fuss."

Neji chose the bedroom. By the dresser, he removed his shirt and began to neatly fold it. It was only the intake of breath that alerted him to the intruder. He immediately dropped into a fighting crouch. His Byukagan activated automatically, and then it faded again as he saw it was Naruto, two hands in front of him in a defensive posture. 

"I disarmed your traps," Naruto whispered.

He saw that Naruto's pupils were dilated large in the dark. His hands hung stiffly at his sides as if he wasn't sure what to do with them. He was by the window. Why hadn't Neji seen him? Or heard him come in? He looked around wildly. The tell-tale chakra patterns of his traps were gone; no longer functioning. 

Hyuga Neji was defenseless now.

He should have protested the intrusion. A violation, really. The ultimate. He should activate the Byakugan. Prepare to fight. Or at the very least, shout at Naruto. Make him realize that this sort of thing just isn't done. Except, he doesn't. What he does do is say, "I think about you, too."

Then Naruto's hands are gripping each of his wrists, and he is speaking, soothing, gentling like Neji were that 8th bird perched precariously on his finger. Neji moves as if to twist his wrists away, but Naruto grips tighter. "Don't... Don't run away from me, Neji. Don't think you have to put your napkin in your lap. Don't blow out the candle. Don't... Not with me. Just don't." 

When he didn't answer, Naruto removed his hands from around Neji's wrists. He took a step back, and they regarded one another. When the silence stretched between them, Naruto spoke again. "Why can't we just...?"

And there it was, in front of him. Like an offering. The thing Neji's thought about far longer than he cared to admit, and had really only come to a tipping point that day when Naruto borrowed his shower. It wasn't sweaty hotel room sex Naruto was offering, and they both knew it. Because Naruto had already disarmed all his traps that day, months before, without even realizing it.

And his mouth was on Naruto's. He was kissing Naruto. Not the other way around. There would be no more coy avoiding of innuendos or long gazes or flinching away from inadvertent touches that lasted a split second too long. And no more hiding himself behind a locked door or a curtain of hair, a history book or an ANBU mask.

Neji took a long moment to savor the feeling of spiky hairs at the back of Naruto's neck sandpapering his palm. He became aware, for the first time, of Naruto's fists tangled in his own hair. Disarmed traps and phantom enemy nin at the windows be damned. He wants this. He's always wanted this. 

And _this_. Naruto has managed to untie the belt of Neji's robe and the cloth has fallen down off his shoulders, only stopped in its descent by his hooked elbows, because his hands are still tracing the nape of Naruto's neck, and the faint whiskers on his chin and the curl of his ears, so unexpectedly delicate. But Naruto's pupils are dilated huge in the darkness, taking in Neji's naked chest. 

Then, with a swift move - he’s the shinobi of their generation after all - Naruto extracts himself from Neji's hold and slides the robe away, leaving Neji naked before him. 

He's never been unclothed in front of another man before. He finds, with Naruto looking at him this way - worship, bliss - that he doesn’t so much mind.

"That too..." Naruto says, and his voice is as husky as Neji's ever heard it. He’s indicating the hitai-ate covering Neji's manji. Wordlessly, Neji bends his head down. Naruto fumbles, but manages to untie the tie, and then Neji is truly naked before him.

“My…” Naruto begins. Naruto’s still gazing at him, but it’s not uncomfortable - Neji undressed, Naruto clothed - despite the frisson of want zinging across the molecules between them.

“My whole life, I… I know you all thought it was stupid that I thought I could be Hokage. But, I knew-” Neji remains carefully still as Naruto stumbles over his words. “But I knew that if my face was carved up there on that mountain that you - all of you - would have to _look_ at me.” 

Naruto takes a step closer. Bridging the gap between them. 

“And now… A lot has happened between now and then. My face isn’t up on that mountain. Yet. But I look at you, Neji. And I know you have eyes that see everything. But I see you.” Naruto’s eyes glitter in the moonlight. “I see you look at me.” 

There will be no retirement community for them. There will be more small bodies in tall grass. They’re shinobi. They won’t change their spots. There will be fire. Blood. Funerals. Secrets. They could have a hundred nights together. Or this could be their only one. 

But, tonight, right now, as Neji watches, Naruto disarms the last of his traps.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos are love ❤️


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